Feeling the Pulse, a Study of the Total Sanitation Campaign in Five States

Report Feeling the Pulse A Study of the Total Sanitation Campaign in Five States WaterAid’s mission is to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education © WaterAid India, November 2008 Advisor S.S. Meenakshisundaram, IndiaWASH Forum Coordination and Editing Indira Khurana and Romit Sen, WaterAid Report writing and Photographs Study Team, Knowledge Links Pvt. Ltd. Inputs Mamita Bora Thakkar, Maria Fernandez, Anand Shekhar, Pratibha Singh, George Fernandez, Hemalatha Patil, WaterAid Any part of this publication my be translated or reprinted with due acknowledgment to WaterAid, India Published by WaterAid India C-3, 1st Floor, Nursery School Building Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj New Delhi – 110070 Design and Printing Macro Graphics Pvt. Ltd. A-36, C.R. Park New Delhi 110019 www.macrographics.com CONTENTS Acknowledgements 1 Preface 2 Acronyms 4 Executive Summary 6 Section-1: Main Report 13 Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) 15 1. Study Methodology 16 2. TSC: Coordinates of a Reform Initiative 18 3. Key Findings 21 4. Subsidy and Incentive: Perceptions and Realities 31 5. IEC and Behaviour Change 35 6. Inclusion, Equity and Gender Relations 37 7. Technology and Safe Sanitation 40 8. Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) 44 9. Role of Civil Society Organisations 47 10. What has worked and what has not 49 11. Emerging Directions: Targets, Triggers and Total Sanitation 52 Section-2: State Reports 55 2.1 Bihar 57 2.2 Chhattisgarh 61 2.3 Haryana 67 2.4 Karnataka 72 2.5 Tripura 77 References 81 Glossary 82 Annexes 85 Annex I: List of GPs visited 87 Annex II: Primary Data on Household Toilets and Usage 89 Annex III: Study Framework and Tools 92 Annex IV: FGD Guide for Community Level Consultation 99 Acknowledgements The seeds of this study on the Total Sanitation facilitated village visits on a very short notice. Campaign (TSC) were sown with a suggestion We also thank them for their very useful made by the IndiaWASH Forum. suggestions and advice in conducting fi eld trips. This report is the outcome of a study undertaken to understand the principles of Secretaries of line departments and their what has worked and what has not worked heads of departments were very welcoming in TSC which is the national programme on and helpful in accessing the individuals to reforms in rural sanitation launched by the be interviewed and institutions to be visited. Government of India in 1999. The focus of Their interest and encouragement made things this study is to draw learning lessons from easy for the members of the study team. the implementation experience so far, for improved effectiveness in the future. We would like to express our special gratitude to Dr. S.S. Meenakshisundaram who has been The study team is immensely grateful a great help in keeping the study focused and to women, men and children of 40 Gram also on drawing lessons learned for improved Panchayats in 20 blocks of 10 districts programme planning and implementation in across 5 states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, future. Haryana, Karnataka, and Tripura, who spared their valuable time to share their The study team accepts that none of the stories of sanitation. We say a big ‘thank individuals and institutions acknowledged you’ to the engineers and functionaries of are in any way responsible for any limitations, line departments in all the study districts errors or inadequacies in the report, for and states, who invested energy and time which the study team members are solely in identifying study blocks and GPs and responsible. Acknowledgements 1 Preface Sanitation as a matter of development priority 1999. TSC represented a shift from a high to gained importance globally in 1980s following low and no subsidy regime in the provision the declaration of the International Water of rural sanitation services to begin with. and Sanitation Decade (IWSD) by the United This was taken further and the term subsidy Nations. In view of emerging requirements in was dropped in TSC Guidelines of 2004 to the sector and in line with India’s commitment be replaced by the term incentive. As per to the IWSD and national requirement, the the latest TSC Guidelines of 2007, ‘incentive Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission as provided under the scheme may be (RGNDWM) was set up by Government of extended to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families India (GoI) in 1985. Along with rural water if the same is considered necessary for full supply, RGNDWM was also given the mandate involvement of the community’. The stated to streamline rural sanitation initiatives in strategy of TSC is to make the Programme the country. Given the global and national ‘community led’ and ‘people centered’. developments in the sanitation sector, Central Rural Sanitation Programme (CRSP) was Inclusion of sanitation as one of the conceived and launched as a country wide Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) initiative in 1986. in 2002 following the Earth Conference in Johannesburg intensifi ed the sanitation CRSP aimed at creating sanitation agenda in India as well. But the sanitation infrastructure at the individual household and uptake in the country still remained fairly community level by providing full subsidy for low till about 2003-04. With the institution the purpose. The inherent policy perception of a post achievement reward scheme called entailed looking at people as benefi ciaries Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) in 2003, the and provision of sanitation goods and services pace of sanitation coverage accelerated in primarily as state responsibility. However, the following year. Beginning with fi rst NGP despite one and a half decades of CRSP being awards in 2004-05, TSC has come to be in place, rural sanitation coverage in the increasingly recognised as an NGP programme country was a meager 22%, as per Census with a lot of prestige attached to it, as the of India 2001. It was clear that CRSP had award is given to the winning GPs, individuals not delivered the desired results. A baseline and organisations by the President of India. survey on water and sanitation conducted by NGP goes beyond coverage to identify and the Indian Institute of Mass Communication award an open defecation free and clean (IIMC) in 1998 revealed that only 2% of the village environment. The number of NGPs benefi ciaries found subsidy to be a motivating awarded has dramatically shot up from 41 in factor for construction of toilets and around 2005 to 10,094 in 2008. 55% of the people having private toilets were self motivated. It also indicated that around TSC has been on for almost a decade now. 60% of the people were willing to pay for However, there are few studies to indicate sanitation services in the rural areas of the whether TSC has been delivering the results country. it set out to in general and what has worked or not worked in TSC so far in particular. It In response to the emerging learning in the was felt that a study of this nature would sector, CRSP was revamped and launched yield signifi cant policy learning and generate as the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) in valuable insights for improving the programme 2 Feeling the pulse implementation strategy for TSC at the the existing literature in the sector comprising national and state levels in the years to come. review reports, studies, country papers, and In view of this felt need, the idea of a rapid other relevant documents. It also builds qualitative assessment of TSC was conceived on the primary qualitative data generated by WaterAid India (WAI) in the beginning of during fi eld visits to 40 GPs in 20 blocks 2008. As WAI has been working closely with across 10 districts of 5 states (2 each from a the government and civil society organisations state) in India. Study states included Bihar, on innovative people led initiatives in water Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, and Tripura. and sanitation in India since mid eighties, the In each state, consultations were held with decision to commission this study was taken the state governments to begin with. Periodic with the objective of generating strategic discussions were held with WaterAid staff in the learning on rural sanitation initiatives at the Country offi ce and the Regional Offi ces as well. national level in the country. The study recognises that TSC has been the The terms of reference for the study was most signifi cant rural sanitation initiative at developed by WAI through an iterative the national level in India so far and carries a process involving multi stakeholder wealth of learning on policy and programme consultation including Government of India. issues about doing sanitation on scale. Dr. S.S. Meenakshisundaram, former Secretary to the Ministry of Rural Development, Various approaches and strategies adopted Government of India provided strategic advice. for the implementation of TSC across states Knowledge Links was engaged to undertake and districts have a lot to tell about what the study across 5 sample states selected in works and what does not work in different consultation with the Government of India. contexts and conditions. Criteria for selection of states included good and bad performing states in terms of We believe that the study fi ndings and achievement in sanitation coverage as per the recommendations carry useful insights data available on the web site of Department about emerging issues and challenges of Drinking Water Supply and also the regional in the implementation of rural sanitation representation from across the country. programmes in India, which could be

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